Court tussle over casino

Tribe of men who started Franklin County venture isn't recognized by U.S.

Published 11:01 pm, Monday, November 4, 2013

Thomas Square stands by a slot machine at Three Feathers Casino on the Akwesasne Reservation in April 2012 in Hogansburg, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union archive)

Thomas Square stands by a slot machine at Three Feathers Casino on the Akwesasne Reservation in April 2012 in Hogansburg, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union archive)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

Court tussle over casino

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Albany

To federal prosecutors, the Three Feathers Casino on the Akwesasne reservation was a blatant "criminal venture" run without permission by Native Americans the U.S. government does not recognize as a tribe.

To the men who ran the casino, it was nothing they tried to hide — and they question whether they even needed government permission to try to inject life into their economically depressed area.

Jurors heard both arguments Monday as four men went on trial in U.S. District Court, accused of playing key roles in running the former casino in Hogansburg, Franklin County, on the vast reservation that straddles New York's border with Canada.

The St. Regis Mohawks are the only federally recognized Indian tribe on the reservation. And only they have permission to run a gambling operation — such as the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort, also in Hogansburg — under a compact with the state.

Prosecutors say Three Feathers never received approval from any of them.

"It was illegal from start to finish," Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric told jurors as the trial got under way before Senior Judge Thomas McAvoy. "They have as much right to run a gambling operation there as I do."

Anthony Laughing Sr., 66, William Roger Jock, 52; and Thomas Angus Square, no age available all of whom are Mohawks who live in Akwesasne, as well as Joseph Hight, 44, of Georgia, face charges of running an illegal gambling casino and transporting illegal gambling devices on Indian land.

On Monday, Jock and Square, the latter of whom is known as "Salt," wore Gustaweh headdresses with feathers in court. They said a prayer in their native tongue before opening statements began.

Jock and Square are tribally elected representatives of two of the three clans within the People of the Way of the Long House, which defense attorneys say is a tribe on the reservation. They say the defendants had no criminal intent and simply worked to help an area one of the lawyers compared to a third-world country.

"The key issue is whether the Long House is a government that operates on Akwesasne," said Lawrence Elman, the attorney for Jock. "Absolutely, 100 percent. They are an Indian tribe."

Elman said the defendants received legal opinions from two lawyers. He argued it was legal to open a Class 2 casino, which can allow for bingo and poker.

They were charged after federal investigators launched an undercover probe that culminated in a Dec. 18, 2012 raid at the casino, located at 439 State Route 37 in Hogansburg. The casino had operated, according to federal prosecutors, from July 2011 to September 2012.

Lovric said Laughing was the "genesis" and "spark" of the casino because he owned the land and set the series of events into motion. He said Laughing put the property, which had been a warehouse, into a murky family trust involving his son and daughter. Lovric said nothing happened at the casino without Laughing's consent.

Lovric said Laughing at one point approached the St. Regis Mohawk's tribal council for permission to open the casino and was rejected.

The prosecutor said Square and Jock were on a quasi-board of directors known as the "Men's Council." Hight, he said, supplied the gambling machines — something two prior suitors declined to do after learning the casino lacked legal authority to operate.

Lovric is prosecuting the case with Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Horsman. Evidence at their disposal includes digital video recording, surveillance and business records. Lovric said, among other points, that the casino was not well-run and collapsed.

Donald Kinsella, Laughing's attorney, called the case a "monumental waste of time at government expense."

Dennis Schlenker, the attorney for Square, said his client believes he is being tried by a foreign government. He told jurors the case was a "civics lesson" involving issues that date back to when Europeans settled on Indian land.

"It begins hundreds and hundreds of years ago when Indians were a sovereign people," Schlenker said. "They lived here. They owned land. ... Salt does not wish to be called a Native American. He was here before there were Americans."

Michael McDermott, the attorney for Hight, questioned the notion that the casino was somehow a criminal operation. "They took every opportunity to advertise this," he told jurors. "Is that something you do when you do something criminally?"

Michael Hoenig, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney with the National Indian Gaming Commission, and Todd Papineau, executive director of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe's Gaming Commission, were the first two witnesses called by the prosecution.

Hoenig said 240 of the 565 federally recognized Indian tribes have permitted gambling.

On cross-examination, Schlenker asked Hoenig if he was familiar with the People of the Way of the Long House tribe. "No — I'm afraid not," he answered.